Barcelona Guide
The Eixample
Casa Batlló
Address: Pg. de Gràcia 43
Opening time: Daily 9am–8pm, access occasionally restricted due to private events
Price: €16.50
Telephone: 932 160 306
Website: www.casabatllo.cat
Perhaps the most extraordinary creation on the Block of Discord is Antoni Gaudí's Casa Batlló, designed for the industrialist Josep Batlló. The original apartment building was considered dull by contemporaries, so Gaudí was hired to give it a face-lift, completing the work by 1907. He contrived to create an undulating facade that Dalí later compared to "the tranquil waters of a lake". There's an animal motif at work here, too: the stone facade hangs in folds, like skin, and from below, the twisted balcony railings resemble malevolent eyes.
The higher part of the facade is less abstruse and more decorative, pockmarked with circular ceramic buttons laid on a bright mosaic background and finished with a little tower topped with a three-dimensional cross. The sinuous interior, meanwhile, resembles the insides of some great organism, complete with snakeskin-patterned walls and window frames, fireplaces, doorways and staircases that display not a straight line between them.
Self-guided audio tours show you the main floor (including the salon overlooking Passeig de Gràcia), the patio and rear facade, the ribbed attic and the celebrated mosaic rooftop chimneys. It's best to reserve a ticket in advance as this is a very popular attraction – the scrum of aimless visitors, audio-stick glued to their ears, can be a frustrating business at peak times.